1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a media processing device that can write information to an integrated circuit tag (IC tag) disposed to a medium, to a media processing system, and to a control method of the media processing device.
2. Related Art
Media processing devices (such as recording devices and label printers) that can write information by near-field communication to IC tags (such as electronic tags and RFID (radio frequency identification) tags) that can communicate contactlessly and are embedded in a medium (such as a recording medium or label) are known from the literature. See, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Appl. Pub. JP-A-2009-83459.
Media having information written to an IC tag are used in various ways. For example, when a customer checks a bag at the service counter of an airport, information identifying the flight on which the baggage is to be loaded may be written to an IC tag embedded in the baggage ticket media, and the baggage ticket then affixed adhesively or by other means to the baggage. When the baggage is then loaded on the plane, the information in the IC tag of the baggage ticket affixed to the luggage is read to identify the plane on which the luggage should be loaded.
When information (write data) is written to the IC tag of the media by this media processing device, the media processing device may communicate wirelessly with the IC tag of an unintended medium because other unintended media is physically near the intended medium (the medium having the IC tag to which the data is to be written). Data may therefore be written to the IC tag of an unintended medium. As a result, the data in an IC tag that was already written correctly by the media processing device may be overwritten by other information, and data may not be written to the intended IC tag.
When information written to the IC tag of the medium is used to identify the item to which the media is attached, the identification must be reliable. The information written to the IC tag must therefore be reliable (accurate). However, if the IC tag on an unintended medium to which data was already written correctly is overwritten with other information, the medium with the IC tag to which data was mistakenly written will be attached to the baggage. Writing the wrong information to an IC tag to which data was already written correctly must therefore be prevented.